This invention relates to a robot apparatus and control method for the same, and for example, more particularly, is suitably applied to a pet robot.
A four-legged walking pet robot which acts according to commands from a user and surrounding environments has been proposed and developed by the applicant of this invention. This type of pet robot looks like a dog or cat which is kept in a general household, and autonomously acts according to commands from a user and surrounding environments. Note that, a group of actions is defined as behavior which is used in this description.
By the way, such case would possibly occur that if a user feels strong affection for a pet robot, he/she may want to leave pictures of scenes the pet robot usually sees or of memory scenes the pet robot has during growing up.
Therefore, it is considerable that if the pet robot had a camera device on its head and occasionally took pictures of scenes which the pet robot actually saw, the user could feel more satisfied and familiar from the pictures of the scenes or the scenes displayed on a monitor of a personal computer as xe2x80x9cpicture diaryxe2x80x9d even if the pet robot was away from the user in the future.
However, if a malevolent user uses such camera-integrated pet robot as a stealthily photographing device to see someone or someone""s privacy by stealth, this must cause a big trouble to the targeted person.
On the other hand, even if a honest user, who keeps instructions, stores video data as photographing results into a storage medium installed in the pet robot, the video data may be taken out from the storage medium and drained when the pet robot is away from the user, for example, when he/she has the pet robot fixed or gives it to another person.
Therefore, if a method of creating xe2x80x9cpicture diaryxe2x80x9d by using a pet robot having such camera function can be realized under necessary condition in which another person""s and own privacy is protected, the user can feel more satisfied and familiar and entertainment property can be improved.
In view of the foregoing, a subject of this invention is to provide a robot apparatus and a control method for the same which can improve entertainment property.
The foregoing object and other objects of the invention have been achieved by the provision of a robot apparatus comprising a photographing means for photographing a subject and a notifying means for making a notice of taking a picture with the photographing means. As a result, the robot apparatus can inform a user that it will take a picture soon, in real time. Thus, which can prevent stealthily photographing, regardless of user""s intentions, in order to protect user""s privacy.
Further, the present invention provides a control method for the robot apparatus comprising a first step of making a notice of taking a picture of a subject and a second step of photographing the subject. As a result, the control method for the robot apparatus can inform the user that a photograph will be taken soon, in real time. Thus, which can prevent stealthily photographing, regardless of user""s intentions, in order to protect user""s privacy.